A Spell for Lina"
by Silvernyte Rhuka
Summary: a Slayers version of a story I once read, about a girl called Annalise and a Troll


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"A Spell for Lina"

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NOTES: _staying up till after 2am looking through books can be very inspirational. Now I have a couple of pages of doodles in my art book - and now that I have more than one thing I want to scan I also have a scanner that's refusing to work - and this little piece of written work based off a story from a book of short stories called "A Spell for Annalise" by Parke Godwin. Its got a real fairy tale feel to it that I like and hope I captured in my re-writing/Slayers-izeing (heehee... I made a new word!). Hope you enjoy it._

In an unimportant place in the world, near an unimportant body of water lived a girl named Lina. Lina knew for a fact that she didn't look very mature, being short and flat, and everyone told her so. 

Lina looked in the mirror every day, looking for any sign of change, but she always seemed to look the same. Oh, sure they told her she'd grow and develop in time, but she wanted to look older and be beautiful now, and she knew ittle girls could only be cute. Never beautiful like she wanted to be. But Lina was not the kind to sit idly by and admit defeat, she'd fight to be beautiful.

"I'll make myself smart," she said. "All those beautiful people will be awed by my knowledge. They'll never know how I feel inside."

And it worked too well, they saw and were impressed with her knowledge, but walked by and left her alone with it.

"Worst of all I'm little and weak," she said. "I'll learn magic and then no one will notice how vulnerable I am."

Again it worked too well. People admired her talent with magic and left her alone with it.

"I won't care," she cried into her pillow. "They'll never see my heart."

And so they didn't.

One summer day she was walking down at the beach, feeling as lonely as she could, which was quite lonely, when she came upon an odd stranger carving something into a piece of driftwood. He didn't look like he'd be much company, but Lina didn't feel she could be too picky.

"What are you carving?" she asked.

"What I am," he answered dryly, blowing off the wood dust. "There. Finished." The carving read: CHIMERA

As far as she could tell now that she could see his face he could have very well been one with his blue stone skin with a sprinkling of pebbles, metallic hair, and pointed ears. Although he didn't look quite as fierce as one would have expected.

"A real Chimera?" Lina asked somewhat skeptically.

"As real as they get," he answered somewhat annoyed. "Now make your wish."

"You can grant wishes??" Lina asked wide-eyed.

"Yeah, the usual stuff, mud into gold, words into music," he answered casually.

"Could you..."

"Make you beautiful?" he finished for her. "At least you're to the point."

Suddenly her almost hopeful look turned into a glare. "I don't believe you. You're a fake!"

"Fine, have it your way," he shrugged. "But if you change your mind I'll be here a while."

That night Lina lay in bed thinking of what all the Chimera had said to her. Could he really make her beautiful? Part of her hoped so and decided to take the chance tomorrow.

That morning as she walked to the beach she saw several girls who looked just saw immature if not more so than her laughing with some handsome guys. Something within her popped and pain suddenly spread and she ran to the beach.

"Someone has to love me," she whispered plaintively. "Chimera! Are you here!?" she yelled looking about seeing only the sea, the sand, and the gulls as loneliness washed over her.

Suddenly she felt a hand touch her shoulder, "I told you I'd be here, didn't I?" He seemed different than yesterday, with the morning sun shining on him he seemed a bit more handsome, and he actually seemed to be smiling faintly. 

"Chimera, can you really make me beautiful?" Lina asked.

"You can."

"Me?" she asked. He nodded in response. "How? Will it hurt?"

"It always does eventually," he shrugged. "Nothing comes free."

Even the notion of change, one presented, even to someone who wants it, can be scary. Lina understood that very well at that moment and asked, "Will you be with me?"

"Always," he answered. In the bright sunlight he seemed to blur, seeming a bit more human, and even more handsome.

"Let's get this over with," Lina said impatiently.

"Then close your eyes and tell me what you want most." Lina hesitated and he shook his head. "You have to or it won't work."

Lina inhaled sharply and spoke, "Iwishsomeonelovedme."

His voice was close and soft, "Now turn it around."

"Me loved someone I wish? That makes no sense."

He sat down on the log he'd carved on the day before, "Just listen, you'll find it."

For a moment she was silent, then another something inside her popped and she understood. "I have to love someone. But there's no one here."

"Just a Chimera," he answered.

Lina looked at him. He was still a chimera, with stone skin and all that, but suddenly she saw him as the most handsome thing ever.

"I love you Chimera. It must be your magic."

"Wrong. You have until sunset to understand," he told her.

"But you said you'd be with me always."

"And I will be. In your mind and in your heart," he smiled at her. "Now take my hand Lina. There's all the time in the world, and no time. That's how life is. You choose."

Later in life Lina would have only the barest memories of walking the Chimera as they talked about big, little, and secret things. And all who watched saw walking with the Chimera the most beautiful young woman.

"Fantastic," someone whispered.

"Unbelievable," another said.

"Beautiful," another said in awe.

"Me?" she muttered as they returned to the beach. "Beautiful?"

As the sun continued its way downward to the horizon the Chimera pulled out a mirror and held it in front of them. "Are you beautiful?"

"I don't know," Lina said barely noticing her image seemed older than before. "All I see is you."

"You must know, hurry," he said glancing at the sun.

"I can't believe it! The love must be your magic."

"No," he said, starting to fade.

"Chimera! Don't leave!"

"Turn it around..." he whispered as he finally vanished.

Then a third thing popped inside of her and she again understood what he meant. The magic was the love. Not his, but hers. Like all truths sadness, a loss, came with it. But she knew it, the Chimera had told her. Nothing comes free.

Sometimes, later on in her life, when she was sad, she could feel the Chimera's hand on her own. When she laughed sometimes she could hear a faint echo of his beside her. And the log still lays on the beach, the word CHIMERA carved in it and LINA beneath that, where it was visited often by the sea, the stars, the happy, and those still searching.

-end-


End file.
